The Beginning of the End

Global Guerrillas: Leaking Legitimacy

Over the last month, it's become increasingly clear that there is a coordinated information operations campaign in place to downplay the impact of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The US government and British Petroleum have imposed a scientific and media blackout to prevent the gathering of the information on the oil leak needed to generate precise estimates (specifically, updates to very low estimates made during the very early days of the crisis). Despite this blackout, credible outside estimates made possible by the little information that has trickled out show that the amount of oil leaking from the broken wellhead is upwards of twenty times the official British Petroleum and Government estimates -- nearly 4,000,000 gallons a day vs. 210,000.

4 million gallons per day, for days on end. The oil spilled by the Exxon Valdez was about 10 million gallons, in total. Per Wikipedia, "The oil [from the Valdez] eventually covered 1,300 miles (2,100 km) of coastline and 11,000 square miles (28,000 km2) of ocean." How long can something of this magnitude be backpaged successfully, as millions of tourists head to the beaches of the South for summer?

The Gulf as we know it is no more. Dmitry Orlov has compared the spill to Chernobyl for its similar roots in political cronyism and potential social consequences. Ecologically, it's probably worse - at least in the case of Chernobyl, the native wildlife of the area survived and regenerated, even in the face of extreme radiation hazards, but a blanket of smothering oil allows for no regeneration.

Live in the South? Time to pick up your hat.

C-Realm letter, May 12

Below is the text of a letter I sent to podcaster KMO of the C-Realm podcast, which he read at the end of episode 205, released on May 12, 2010.
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Hey KMO;

Enjoying the new blog (ETC J).

I was just re-listening to your dialogue with Doug Lain talking about your convo with Frank Rotering, and then there was this NYT article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/10/world/africa/10aids.html and i started thinking about that whole "dieoff" thing that so many folks don't want to talk about. I think it's already started happening, we just haven't been able to see it 'cos it's been hidden by the last whitewashing...and because we willfully ignore the obvious signs. This article highlights an example.. AIDS has barely been talked about in most mainstream media in the States in years, but in Africa, it's a slow-moving mass casualty war, that is now starting to accelerate.

As the ability of the globalists to mask it up starts to fail, AIDS and anything else like this will hit harder, kill more, and move faster. Less money for AIDS? Also less money for cancer research, for grants to rebuild places that have flooded/burned/been tornado-mauled, for vaccination programs, for monitoring of industries.... I grew up in coal country, and I know just how important OSHA inspections are to keep mines safe for miners, but do you think the Labor Dept will do much more than slap a few wrists at Massey these days? And don't even get me started on the oil spill.

I think part of the problem in discussing dieback is that too many people have been media-conditioned to expect One Big Cause. SARS! Swine flu! Zombies! But there won't be One Big Cause, just lots and lots of little ones all adding up, like a Katamari ball. JMG's catabolic collapse is perhaps the most spot-on in that way, although I notice he doesn't discuss dieoff much either. It's the elephant in the doomer's mud hut, it seems. As though any attempt to talk about it implies some kind of inappropriate social hierarchicalization or bigotry. I call BS on that.

I don't have to hold any bigotry in my heart against Africans to know that it is very likely that death by disease there will greatly accelerate in the coming years, and that it is also as likely that the rich folk of Africa will not suffer as much as the poor. Also, that war and violent strife will increase, too, as the ill and the strong compete for dwindling resources. It isn't a pretty picture. It's no wonder people don't want to talk about it. But the same thing is happening here, right now to a lesser extent, but perhaps to a greater one shortly.

Anyway, sorry to bend your ear about what is probably a dead horse of a topic for you these days.

I will try to send some donations your way soon. If you decide to kick off another tour, ping me.
Cheers,
katuah

That Zombie-Type Blog

Over the next few weeks, I'll be reviving this blog as a location for direct commentary on podcasts and other media items of note. Feel free to join in the conversation.